Errol Morris chills out for Next Feature

Errol Morris is an amazing documentary filmmaker, despite my utter disappointment in his last film ‘Standard Operating Procedure’. His films are poignant, creative and uniquely simple in their presentation while still incredibly engaging.

Mandate Pictures is developing a dark comedy inspired by both Robert F. Nelson’s memoir ‘We Froze the First Man’ and an episode of ‘This American Life’ on NPR called You’re As Cold as Ice.

The screenplay is being written by Zack Helm (Zack Helm) and Errol Morris has decided to take this project on as it’s director, making it only the second narrative feature he’s tackled. Morris’ first venture away from the documentary was in 1991 with ‘Dark Wind’ starring Lou Diamond Phillips which received a luke-warm reception at best.

The true story is about a TV repairman in the 60’s who joined a group of people who believed they could cheat death with a new technology called cryonics.

I hope this film turns out as interesting as the story suggests it could be, but I’m a bit skeptical. While ‘Dark Wind’ isn’t considered a success, I have to consider that part of it’s failure was due to an alleged rift between Morris and Executive Producer Robert Redford over creative differences. Hopefully this second attempt outside of documentary filmmaking doesn’t get iced.

[source: Variety]